love your work man, this car will be awesome when its done, keep up th good work

Finalised Design - It's off to be laser cut now.... I finally got five sets of the components I need from my schematic delivered today. Five sets "just in case" I need some spares when assembling the prototype and also if successful, I guess I have four sets to build for other VL owners who want this mod. Just now waiting for the 8mm Digit LED from China which should be here on 6th December. Now roll on Perth! I think we will be putting this all together on the 22nd / 23rd December when I'm back. More updates then. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

UPDATE: Just got the central dash part back from the instrument panel maker. How it fits up with the clock Got a couple more made up to make a couple of spare kits. Just waiting on the 8mm 3 digit seven segment LED from China which I'm getting made up for this project. I'm assured it will be delivered next week - well it better as I'm back in Perth the following week! More to come.... Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

thats amazing mate keep up the good work cant wait till its finished u might have a fue people asking if you will sell it as a plug in kit too, for starters me. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Looking great keep us all updated Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by DETN8A [View Post] thats amazing mate keep up the good work cant wait till its finished u might have a fue people asking if you will sell it as a plug in kit too, for starters me. Yeah - well that's the eventual intention. I have 5 prototype kits with sourcecode loaded that needs to be soldered up. The only thing is; I'm converting a spare / broken cruise control switch to be the speed alert switches. I do not know whether VL owners would want to do that. I'm going to see whether I can replicate the entire switch purpose built from a place here in the UK but that means the costs go up or I can supply the switches in basic button form and you can cut it how you want to mount (and get an old CC switch and do the modifications yourself) - or just cut 3 holes in the blank plate that is to the left of the dash and mount it there. I'm using a CC switch as the whole setup will look factory. My aim and intention. Even getting some labels done for "Mode" / "Up" and "Down" - this has to look spot on in my eyes. If it doesn't look right, I'm going to get the panels made up from scratch. But first things first, I will get it working on my car next Wednesday. My dash insides where the globes go is being slightly modified to accomodate the digits - this is all easy stuff you can do yourselves. I won't have the completed pictures of everything in until after new year but the whole digital speedo should be working Wednesday before I unplug it all for the final mounting. Another update: I got my trims back but the trimmer did not follow instructions as he was drunk when he was finishing them according to the guy that is sorta managing things whilst I'm away and was present when he was finishing off. I'm not happy with the results. As for the A-pillar pod - again, the upholsterer did not follow explicit directions from the guy that moulded the door panels to follow the grain of the cloth. More precious VL velour material is wasted. Has to get fixed now. The dude has gone downhill apparently in the last 2 years since I last used him. Lost his trimming business and house. Lives in a caravan now. Last time I will use him. I do not know why stuff like this gets screwed up for me. Anyway here's some pics. As mentioned above - the cloth grain wasn't matched per instructions - I'm getting this redone and unfortunately will have to use more of my precious VL Group A velour. The idiot trimmer was rushing this through as my mate was around his place to pick it up. Didn't glue the carpet. - Didn't clean the fabric after sewing. Was drunk with the strong smell on alcohol on his breath according to my mate. Top bit (velour) is ok and luckily it matches but the carpet, well, at $120 a metre (as closest match to the original carpet is from a Rolls Royce), I may have to order more from the place in Melbourne. Unfortunately I believe I got the last of their 2008 roll (where the original piece on my doors was from) - so colour and integrity will not be 100% match up with the back doors. Pulling my hair out on this one. I'll decide when I'm back whether to redo the carpets on all 4 doors to the 2009 carpet roll that the auto-trimmers in Melbourne had. Lucky the front part of the carpet won't really be that visible once the door is shut BUT I'll decide next week what I'm going to do. When I'm back in Perth next week, I'm getting a "Dynaudio by HDT" badge made up for the speaker grills where the current badge sits. Yes I know, HDT never brought this system out but my project brief is to make it look a retro-authentic as possible. A nicer little touch me thinks! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Looking good! I lvoe all the little details and stickers your making up to go along with this project, it's going to end up being something very different Keep us all updated Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

UPDATE: TomTom Mounting This is the mechanism which is going to be adapted to fit the TomTom and be moulded into the dash pad. It may look familiar because it's off an old portable CD player. The mechanism is spring loaded and has a smooth release and rise action. Rather than go all motorised we thought that if Holden did have such a thing in the 80s, the mechanism would have been simple and cheap to manufacture. This isn't the TomTom model I'm using as it's just for demo purposes only but mine hasn't been released yet and is in storage. You get the idea.... [Correction] - The TomTom model has just been released. Here it is: http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products...rope/index.jsp (http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/car-navigation/go-live-1000-europe/index.jsp) Pictured is a 3.5 inch as the one I have is 4.3 inch. I've sat on the Go 1000 since September / October this year thanks to my contacts at TomTom. ---------- Post added 14-12-10 at 16:38 ---------- More Pics: This mechanism will be mounted under the pad. There's just enough room. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by EvilPet [View Post] UPDATE: TomTom Mounting This is the mechanism which is going to be adapted to fit the TomTom and be moulded into the dash pad. It may look familiar because it's off an old portable CD player. The mechanism is spring loaded and has a smooth release and rise action. Rather than go all motorised we thought that if Holden did have such a thing in the 80s, the mechanism would have been simple and cheap to manufacture. This isn't the TomTom model I'm using as it's just for demo purposes only but mine hasn't been released yet and is in storage. You get the idea.... [Correction] - The TomTom model has just been released. Here it is: http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products...rope/index.jsp (http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/car-navigation/go-live-1000-europe/index.jsp) Pictured is a 3.5 inch as the one I have is 4.3 inch. I've sat on the Go 1000 since September / October this year thanks to my contacts at TomTom. ---------- Post added 14-12-10 at 16:38 ---------- More Pics: This mechanism will be mounted under the pad. There's just enough room. will that effect the air conditioning vents in anyway, if not looks good Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by sam515 [View Post] will that effect the air conditioning vents in anyway, if not looks good Nope - It just fits with a couple of mm spare. The clamshell still has to undergo some modifications.

Hats off to the level of detail and thought being used to create this. Its a top effort what you've come up and once complete will be an awesome addition that I'm sure not many would pick up on as being retrofitted. Well done

nice work keep the pic's comin bro..

Quote: Originally Posted by kalais6 [View Post] Hats off to the level of detail and thought being used to create this. Its a top effort what you've come up and once complete will be an awesome addition that I'm sure not many would pick up on as being retrofitted. Well done Thanks!

so the carpet on the door trim is stuffed? has he made cuts in the fabric to cover the curve? not a trimmers a@@hole if he has..... i hate when people dont do their jobs properly Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by ADICTIV [View Post] so the carpet on the door trim is stuffed? has he made cuts in the fabric to cover the curve? not a trimmers a@@hole if he has..... i hate when people dont do their jobs properly Yes he has. The carpet I used I actually went to Melbourne to get so I could match the colour up perfectly as I know the rolls vary especially with this carpet which wasn't produced for one year. It's actually imported from the UK. What was agreed that the whole carpet could be stretched and glued in one piece. He didn't do that. Took the easy way out and did it in two pieces. I'll evaluate next week when I'm back. I know this is really going to niggle me and I might just get all 4 doors redone again. So that's four attempts at getting the doors done right in six years. I do not know how to avoid clowns like this guy. ---------- Post added 15-12-10 at 15:36 ---------- UPDATE: Vodafone PXTworld services suck as I am unable to pick up the latest photos from there; - Hole has been cut in the dash pad. Piece cut out is now being grinded on the underside (as there are support ribs) where the piece is to fit on top of the mechanism. - Runners being fitted but has to use gravity to ensure that when the top goes down the TomTom slides in nicely everytime. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by tzatziki [View Post] nice work keep the pic's comin bro.. You asked for it.... Firstly before somebody throws the word "molest a VL" my way, this is a spare dash pad....NOT the original one that came with the car. Everything I've customised and replaced have been spares and my original bits are being mothballed. The hole cutout is aligned perfectly from the vents up this will look square from the front on. The dash as you know is sloped towards the passengers side. Side view. Notice how thick the dash is - The piece cut out is now being ground down to about a 5mm depth. I think I'll put an thumb indentation on the RHF corner because that is the area you will have to press down for the TomTom cover / lid to pop up (ie. click down, pop up). I was also thinking of getting a small Holden lion decal circa 1986-1988 (eg. TomTom by Holden or something like that) made up for the inside of the clamshell so the panel looks "factory". Mulling some ideas and I'll get the decals done next week in Perth. Thing is, when the clamshell lifts, it should look "neat" inside similar to what the glovebox looks inside OR I might get some "accordion" type filling inside that hides the inside and lifts with the clamshell. Dunno - going to talk to a few people about how this "could" have been designed by Holden. ---------- Post added 16-12-10 at 18:43 ---------- Quote: Originally Posted by ADICTIV [View Post] so the carpet on the door trim is stuffed? has he made cuts in the fabric to cover the curve? not a trimmers a@@hole if he has..... i hate when people dont do their jobs properly Here's how they turned out.... UPDATE: Doors are done and all wires insulated with heat shrink and will be installed this Sunday. I'm still gutted it's not 100% to my liking / vision but I have so much other things to do right now, this now slips down the priority list. The A-pillar pod is being fitted this Sunday too but after the idiot trimmer didn't do what he was supposed to do and has now gone AWOL probably with his carton of beer and bong, I'm at crossroads as to what to do. Again, once I get the pics through I'll make a judgement call. Hopefully they get to me before I head to the airport for my journey back to Oz. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

UPDATE: TomTom Fitting The top will be painted the same colour as the rest of the dash OR there is a guy in Perth that might be able to give the top the same "grain" as the rest of the dash like what he did to my iPod mount and A-pillar gauge pod (before I abandoned that look for upholstered). The bit that was cut out won't do as its much too hard to sand it flat and even on the underside. I'm just deciding how to present the inside of the clamshell so it looks "factory". Still talking to a few people about how it "could" have been done. This sits absolutely square with the front vents and perpendicular with the doors. The dash as you know slopes slightly towards the passenger side BUT we're lucky that the tray that is being installed sits perfectly on the part that is completely flat. How it fits underneath - As mentioned previously above, this just clears all the venting by a few mm once its all screwed / fitted. Digital Speedo Update: The LEDs that I need for the digital speedo were sent by mail on Tuesday. I'm now worried that it won't reach me in time and might have been delayed from the Christmas mail sort. Worse comes to worse I'll get someone to pick up my mail and courier it to Perth meaning that I'll fit the right LED on the 2nd January instead of next week - I'll fit a slightly larger one next week if that is the case as a temporary measure. Fingers crossed it arrives tomorrow. ---------- Post added 18-12-10 at 04:59 ---------- UPDATE: Digital Speedo Mock Up Well, the LEDs I was expecting from China came through today. Slight issue with one of them I requested and an excerpt of the email is as below; "....Hi Aaron Just received the following response from Rebecca.... Hello Brian, I checked with our engineers for this and they informed me that our reflector supplier don�t offer us the plastic reflector of BL-T30A-31 series. They don�t produce the reflector of the item BL-T30A-31 series. So they made samples of BL-T31A-32UG instead, which is the closest dimension with the item BL-T31A-32UG. For the white color, our engineers tried to make with the technology of blue chip and yellow phosphor. But the samples works no good. So we didn�t send the samples with white color to you. Best wishes, Ms Rebecca Wong Sales Manager..." So I do have a few shades of green and yellow to play around with next week but no white which I thought would be good to start playing around with colour filters. Well that isn't going to happen. The digits are slightly thicker / fatter than the clock but there's nothing I can do - they are still 8mm in height though. The standard VL clock LED are individually lit within each digit square - sorta like individual microscopic lightbulbs - hence why the clock unit is so big to start off with - It's 70s/80s technology. So below is as good as this project digit segments are going to get. The length across the whole unit is 21.3mm so should fit in the cavity in the dash nicely without much modification. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Been following this closely, much respect for what you're attempting here. When it comes time to sell the other Digital Speedo's send me a PM Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

UPDATE: Am stuck in London. I was supposed to fly out 5 hours ago but I'm back home now awaiting instructions from the airlines. Not too sure now when I'm going to get back and put all this together now. I got some update photos of the doors and they look sweet. Not 100% and I know those carpet joins are really going to niggle me. Otherwise I would think the door almost looks "factory". Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Love your work dude - nice to see something different. It's also nice to see all your progress pics - I like being able to see how things are made. Shame about your door trims - I'm no trimmer, but I managed to make my speaker pods look pretty damn good. As for other ideas for your project, have you thought about attempting a proximity key/ true key-less operation?